When Toronto Mayor Rob Ford decided to move the Eglinton Crosstown rail line underground, he created what is now the most expensive infrastructure project in Canada.
This is according to ReNew Canada, a magazine dedicated to infrastructure, which has ranked the 100 biggest infrastructure projects in the country.
The Eglinton line, which initially was to cost $4.6 billion, ranked fourth on the list. But burying the line will now cost $8.2 billion, meaning the other three planned light rail lines under the Transit City plan have been cancelled.
"A single LRT (light rail transit) line has eclipsed a 2000-megawatt hydro complex (Hydro-Quebec's $6.5-billion Romaine A Project) to become the biggest project in Canada," reads a ReNew Canada statement.
Ford decided to cancel Transit City during his first day in office at the end of 2010 saying "the war on the car stops today...We will not build any more rail tracks down the middle of our streets."
While promising to cancel Transit City was a major talking point in his campaign, it certainly came with a cost and has many critics.
TTC general manager Gary Webster said a few weeks ago the cancellation of the plan will cost $65 million and Spacing columnist John Lorinc wrote that burying the Eglinton line "will be rightly remembered as the single most expensive infrastructure mistake in Toronto history."
ReNew writes on its website it will cost $360 million to bury 10 additional kilometres and Metrolinx, the regional transit authority, may need to purchase an another two to four tunnel boring machines to dig the extra kilometres.
They also note the area around the Don Valley river presents a difficult challenge for engineers and question the effect local politics have on such development.
The Eglinton line isn't the only Toronto transit project on the list, the Spadina Subway Extension, which will lengthen the Spadina line from Downsview Station at Sheppard Avenue to Highway 7, landed eighth with a price tag of $2.63 billion.
Other provinces certainly aren't being left out in the cold. B.C., Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Ontario all have hydro projects on the top 10 list, which also includes a highway and hospital project in Montreal.
Overall, this year's list of 100 projects has the largest total at more than $114 billion, up 18 per cent over last year's list.
Projects stay on the list until completed. In fact, 71 of the projects were on the top 100 list last year. The 29 new projects represent an additional $30 billion in infrastructure investment in Canada.
Top 10 list
1. Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit
Location: Toronto, ON $8.2-billion
2. Site C Clean Energy Project hydro dam
Location: Northeastern British Columbia $7.9-billion
3. Romaine Complex A Renewable Energy hydroelectric project
Location: Havre-Saint-Pierre, Quebec $6.5-billion
4. Lower Churchill Hydro Project
Location: Central Labrador $6.2-billion
5. Eastmain-1-A/Sarcelle/Rupert hydro project
Location: James Bay Territory, Quebec $5-billion
6. Bipole III Transmission Line
Location: Gillam to Winnipeg, staying west of Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba $3.28-billion
7. Turcotte Interchange (replacing an aging expressway
interchange, as well as stretches of highways 15, 20 and 720)
Location: Montreal, Quebec $3-billion
8. Spadina Subway Extension
Location: Toronto, Ontario $2.63-billion
9. Lower Mattagami Hydroelectric Complex
Location: 70 km northeast of Kapuskasing, ON $2.6-billion
10. CHUM (Centre hospitalier de l'université de Montréal)
Redevelopment - a new hospital research centre
Location: Montreal, Quebec $2.5-billion
(CBC image)
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